


Trouble Is...

by firefly124, PallasPerilous



Category: Supernatural
Genre: DeanCas FlipFest, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-10 01:27:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20519705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firefly124/pseuds/firefly124, https://archiveofourown.org/users/PallasPerilous/pseuds/PallasPerilous
Summary: Ever since he fished Cas’ ass out of hell, Dean has been helping Cas hunt.  He’s healed Cas more times than anyone, even an angel, could count.  So why didn’t it ever occur to Cas to ask how to help Dean if he was ever the one to get hurt?





	Trouble Is...

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thanks to @captainhaterade for beta-reading.

This hunt had started out with a solid plan. Really. Like most plans, though, it didn’t seem to be working out as intended. It also had them in a mildewy, abandoned warehouse, which seemed to be another common, awful, theme.

“We need you back in heaven, Dean,” Ishim said. “Your job here is done. It was done once you’d raised that sad excuse for a righteous man from perdition.”

“Hey!” Cas snapped. “You know I can hear you, right?”

“Did you hear anything, Jemariel?”

“Not me, Ishim.”

“Might have been a mosquito,” Selaphiel, the third one, said.

“Ha-ha, very funny.” Dean scowled at them. “You don’t need me. You need to get your heads out of your asses and straighten out your mess upstairs.”

Cas could tell he was just trying to buy enough time for Sam to set up the spell that would summon the members of this faction of angels into heaven’s jail. Meanwhile, Cas had been trying to angle behind Dean to start an angel-banishing sigil. It would blast Dean away, too, but probably not to the same place as the rest.

Probably. He really didn’t want to test that. 

“Heaven is your home, too, Dean,” Jemariel said. “You have a duty to follow our Father’s…”

“You know what? Dad went out for smokes, and he hasn’t been home in a few centuries,” Dean said. “I kinda think he’s not defining our duty anymore.”

“It’s this human,” Selaphiel said. “He’s infected you with human ideas about free will. That was never for us.”

“And how, exactly, is that working out for you?” Cas asked. What was taking Samael so long? “Seems to me, being a bunch of robots would be kind of boring after the first millennium or two.”

“It’s high time we cured you,” Ishim said. He flicked his hand and an angel blade appeared in it.

Cas drew his own blade as Dean manifested his. Cas still hadn’t managed to create the sigil, but all he needed to do was buy time. He could totally do that. It was only three to two. They’d fought worse odds before. Of course, that had been against demons, not angels.

_Come on, Sam. Hurry up! he prayed._

And then everything seemed to happen at once.

Ishim and Jemariel lunged for Dean. Cas dove for Selaphiel, who had clearly sighted on him. He managed to parry the angel’s blows, but that was about it. There was no way he could keep this up for long. Sam’s spell could kick in any time now, so Cas just had to keep alive in the meantime. That was enough to get him to duck another thrust. And another.

_Seriously, Sam, please!_

A burst of light and a yell from Dean told Cas he’d been hit. Cas knew better than to let his guard down, but he couldn’t resist turning to see how badly Dean had been hurt. That was a mistake.

“No!” Dean shouted.

Cas found himself being flattened to the ground, Dean landing heavily on top of him, as a high-pitched screech echoed around them.

Then silence.

Cas struggled to get up. If they stayed put, they’d both be dead.

“Dean,” he hissed, “get off me!”

Dean moaned slightly, to Cas’ relief, but the angel didn’t move. That’s when Cas noticed the feeling of something warm and wet seeping through his shirt. He couldn’t get Dean to turn, so he had to wriggle out from under him. 

He scoped the area quickly and saw no sign of the other angels. Sam’s spell must have worked. But what was wrong with Dean? He bent to shake the angel’s shoulder.

That’s when he was able to see the problem. Well, part of the problem.

Dean’s wings were visible, and spread wide, which was at least part of why he hadn’t been able to get Dean to roll off of him. One of them was also bleeding.

_Sam!_ Cas prayed. _Sam, Dean’s hurt! His wings… I… I don’t know what to do._

How had he been hunting side by side with this angel for years, but never learned how to help him? Dean was always there whenever Cas needed help. He came any time Cas called. Trouble was, Cas hadn’t ever asked what to do if Dean needed help. He’d just always seemed so… so indestructible.

And wings. Cas knew nothing about wings, never mind angelic ones. He’d only even seen Dean’s wings once before, and then they’d just looked like shadows. These… well, these were amazing. If he wasn’t so worried about the blood oozing out from wherever Dean had been hit, Cas could just gaze at the deep-golden feathers for hours. Now, though, there was no time for that.

Sam didn’t appear, so Cas considered his options. They were indoors, so not completely exposed, but if those angels were able to escape Sam’s trap, they’d come right back here. The Continental was right outside. If Cas could at least stop the bleeding from Dean’s wings and rig some kind of a litter, they could at least get away from here.

“I’m not leaving you,” he said firmly. “I’ll be right back.”

He tore out to the old Lincoln and threw open the trunk. He pulled out his first aid kit and dug a tarp out from under the case holding his assortment of IDs. 

Once he got back to Dean, Cas realized that there really wasn’t that much blood, after all. Which was a good thing, because he realized he had no idea where the bleeding was actually coming from. He grabbed a roll of gauze, carefully wound it around the sections of wing where he saw blood, and gently guided Dean’s wings to fold against his back. They didn’t seem to be quite symmetrical, but Cas wasn’t sure what that meant. Was the injured one broken? If so, he couldn’t quite tell where. 

He was going to have to prioritize getting the hell out of there. If Dean’s wing was broken, Cas probably wasn’t going to make it worse. Much. Spreading out the tarp, he cautiously rolled Dean onto it. Dean groaned, but still didn’t wake up.

Not wanting to cause any more damage to Dean’s wings, Cas got him positioned awkwardly on his side, and dragged the angel on the tarp out of the building and toward the car.

That, of course, was when Sam showed up. As soon as he heard the flutter of wings, Cas let go of the tarp and drew his angel blade again, ready to defend them both. He lowered the blade when he saw that it was Sam.

“Sorry, I had to make sure they were secure and couldn’t follow,” Sam said. “What happened?”

“I couldn’t even see,” Cas said. “Dean pushed me down, out of the way, and then…”

Sam knelt and put his hands over the areas Cas had bandaged. Light glowed from his palms and a soft ringing noise filled Cas’ ears. Sam’s brow creased, and he sat back on his heels.

“This was done with angel blades,” he said. “I can’t heal him.”

“What?” Why the hell couldn’t angels heal injuries from their own weapons?

“You did good stopping the bleeding,” Sam said. “But he’s going to have to heal on his own.”

“Why won’t he wake up?” Cas asked. “It didn’t seem like he lost that much blood.”

“Our wings aren’t meant to manifest physically, like this,” Sam said. “He was using them to shield you, and that took a lot of grace to do. Once he’s rested, he should be fine.”

Cas wasn’t crazy about that word, “should,” but he was hanging onto the word “fine.” 

“So, what do we do? I was going to try to get him in the car and just get away from here,” Cas admitted. “Just in case, you know…”

“No, that’s good thinking.” Sam nodded. “They’re contained, but what if they hadn’t been, right?”

“Right.” Cas bit his lip. “Will you need to bring him to heaven?”

“No.” Sam pressed his lips together. “He’d probably heal faster there, but there are too many other factions causing trouble. I have an idea. Get in the car.”

Cas blinked at him stupidly. Did Sam still want Cas to drive Dean somewhere?

“Trust me, Cas,” Sam said. “Just get in the car.”

Cas took a deep breath and got into the driver’s seat. He thought about starting it, but he’d no sooner pulled the keys out of his pocket than he felt a familiar icy chill pass through him as his vision blurred out. When his surroundings became clear, they were outside the bunker. 

As Cas scrambled out of the car, Sam hefted Dean into his arms. Cas quickly opened the door to the bunker and let Sam carry Dean down the stairs. Sam quickly strode towards the dormitory area and Cas’ room, lying Dean down on the bed, face down to protect his wings. Cas briefly considered asking why Sam didn’t bring Dean to his own bed, not that the angel ever actually used it. Instead, he bit that back and focused on what kind of care Dean was going to need.

“What should I…” Cas started.

Sam raised his hands to his temples, his face scrunched up in pain.

“Sam?”

“I’ve got to go,” Sam said. “The warding here should protect you.”

“But what do I…?”

“Just tend his wounds as you would any human’s,” Sam said as he took a step back. “Mostly, he just needs to rest and regenerate his grace.”

A flap of wings, and Sam was gone. 

Cas ran his fingers through his hair. That was simultaneously a relief and not at all helpful. Yeah, Cas knew basic field medicine, but people didn’t come with wings, and he knew nothing about taking care of birds. Their wings might not even be the same. What if he made something worse? Surely Sam would have told him if that were possible, right?

For now, he’d just have to do what Sam told him and trust that would be enough. He grabbed the first aid kit from under his bed and set to work cutting away the gauze he’d used on Dean’s wings so that he could find and clean the wounds. It was slow going, because of course the wounds were under the feathers somewhere. When Cas moved some of the bent or broken feathers out of the way, though, Dean groaned as if that was hurting him more. So he had to be both careful and gentle as he worked.

Eventually, he was satisfied that he’d done the best he could to clean and disinfect Dean’s wounds and bind them back up. Could angels even get infections? Did they get completely different ones from humans? Cas replayed Sam’s instructions in his head and hoped what he’d done was enough.

Dean looked reasonably comfortable, at least. He’d turned his face to one side, despite the fact he supposedly didn’t need to breathe. His features were as relaxed and unguarded as Cas had ever seen them. Cas just wished he’d open his eyes. The fact that he was still sleeping couldn’t be a good sign. Sleep just wasn’t a thing that Dean did. Cas hoped that, as with humans, it meant Dean was healing. Maybe his mojo had to focus on the wounds and had pulled back from anything else. That seemed like as reasonable an explanation as any, and kind of lined up with what Sam had said.

It was silly, but Cas pulled a blanket out of the closet and used it to cover Dean up. No, the angel probably wasn’t cold, but it didn’t seem right to leave him sleeping on top of the covers like that. Despite the fact that Cas actually did need sleep, he didn’t really want to leave Dean. What if the angel woke up and needed something? 

Cas hesitated for a moment, then went down to the library and grabbed one of the chairs. They weren’t great, but they were comfier than the one at the desk in his room. He hauled it back to his room and arranged it next to the bed as quietly as he could. There had been many a time Dean had watched over Cas, despite his protests that it wasn’t necessary. Cas was determined to return the favor. Unfortunately, unlike the angel, Cas actually did need to sleep on a regular basis, and he’d been going flat out for almost two solid days. So while he fought it, it was only a matter of minutes before sleep claimed him.

* * *

THUNK!

Cas’ eyes snapped open, and he jumped to his feet, scanning the room for danger. He was momentarily disoriented. If he was waking up in his room, why wasn’t he in his bed? His bed that was badly wrinkled but empty.

A groan came from beside the bed.

Then it all came back to him.

“Shit, Dean!” Cas ran around to the other side of the bed and saw the angel sprawled on the floor. Fortunately, whatever had happened, he’d managed to land face down. 

“Why can’t I…? What…? Cas?” Dean asked, pushing himself up and turning to face the hunter.

“What do you remember?” Cas asked. 

“Ishim and his pals,” Dean said. He frowned as he worked it through. “They were trying to get me to go back to heaven with them. We were trying to buy time for Sammy’s trap to work. They were going to kill you.”

“They didn’t,” Cas said, “obviously.”

“Where’s Sammy?” Dean asked. His bound wing was still twitching like it wanted to extend, but Dean appeared completely unaware of it.

Cas shook his head and licked his lips. “He got something on angel radio. Didn’t have time to explain before he took off.”

Dean cocked his head as if listening for something. He winced.

“That bad?” Cas asked.

“Bartholomew’s faction was trying to join up with Ishim’s.”

Cas’ eyes felt like they were going to jump out of his face. That would have been an almost impossible team to beat. “They didn’t break them out, did they?

“No,” Dean said. “And now they’re locked up, too.”

Cas breathed a sigh of relief.

“Sammy’s still tying up loose ends,” Dean continued, “whatever that means.”

“How are you, Dean?” Cas asked. There had been no point asking before now. Dean would never concern himself with his own well-being until he knew Sam was safe. Cas had learned that about both of them early on. It was like they had a list of who to worry about, and each had the other in the number one spot. If he was honest with himself, Cas knew that he was on Dean’s list, too, and probably right behind Sam. Trouble was, he just wasn’t quite sure what that meant.

Dean craned his neck to look over his shoulder at the bandaged wing. He rustled it slightly as if testing its strength against Cas’ handiwork.

“Better, I think,” he said. “You do this?”

“Yeah.” Cas ran his fingers through his hair, suddenly embarrassed. “Sam couldn’t heal you, so I just did the best I could.”

“You did awesome,” Dean said. “It just felt weird when I woke up, so I kind of… freaked.”

That explained why he’d ended up on the floor, at least. It didn’t explain why the angel looked like he was blushing.

“Is there anything else I can do for it?” Cas asked. “I didn’t know if you needed any kind of splint or…”

“Nah,” Dean said. “Nothing broken. Well, not anymore. In fact, the bandages can probably come off. It’s stopped bleeding. Almost as good as new.”

So something had been broken. At least it seemed to have healed while Dean was asleep. Cas pulled out his knife and carefully used it to slice away the gauze he’d wrapped around the damaged wing. 

As soon as the bandages fell away, the wing extended out fully, knocking Cas backwards. He tried to regain his balance, but landed on his ass with the remnants of Dean’s bandage in one hand and his knife in the other. The blood stains that had been on the golden feathers faded away before Cas’ eyes. Cas didn’t even bother to try to get up. He wanted to revel in this rare sight for as long as he could before Dean folded his wings back to wherever he normally kept them.

“Yup, good as new! Awesome job, Cas, thanks.”

Dean did fold his wings back behind him and turn to look at Cas, but his wings were still clearly visible. The angel quirked an eyebrow.

“What’re you doing down there?” he asked, extending a hand to help Cas up.

“Uh, nothing,” Cas said intelligently. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from Dean’s wings. He remembered the feel of the feathers in his hands and had to force himself not to reach out to touch them again.

“Riight,” Dean said. “So why are you looking at me like… Wait. You’re not looking at me, are you?”

“I mean, your wings are part of you,” Cas replied. He swallowed whatever nonsense wanted to spill out of his mouth after that. He wasn’t sure what else he was going to say, but it was going to be stupid. That much he knew.

Dean’s eyes went wide.

“You can still see them?” he asked.

“Well, yeah,” Cas said. “You didn’t”—he waved his hands like a stage magician—”put them away yet.”

“Uh, yeah, I did,” Dean said. Behind him, his wings ruffled slightly and then settled back down. “Yup, right where they belong.”

“See for yourself,” Cas said, pointing to the mirror over the sink on the far side of his room.

With an impatient huff, Dean stalked over to the mirror and looked into it. For a few seconds he just stared at his reflection, then he turned back to Cas.

“Nope. They’re not visible to human sight,” he said. His forehead creased.

“Well, they’ve never been visible to me before, but I can definitely see them now,” Cas said. A thought struck him, and his stomach churned. “I did get your blood on me. That doesn’t… it’s not like vampires, right?”

Dean blinked at him for a second. It wasn’t often Cas managed to dumbfound the angel. Usually it was the other way around, so he enjoyed rare occasions like this, even though they tended to come up in the middle of worrisome situations.

“No, Cas. Getting my blood on you didn’t turn you into an angel.”

Cas breathed a sigh of relief.

“I mean, that’d be awesome, but…”

“Awesome?” Cas glared at him. “Sure, it’d be handy to be able to smite the shit out of demons, but I think I like being human better, thanks.”

He’d spent the better part of a year avoiding becoming an angel. Dean had even been on his side about it, eventually. Why the hell did he suddenly think it’d be “awesome”?

“Hey, chill, dude,” Dean said. An expression crossed his face in an instant and was gone before Cas could identify it. Worry? Sadness? 

Cas squinted at the angel, “I thought you were all ‘team human,’ Dean.”

“I was! Am!” Dean ran his fingers through his hair, looking for a moment like a small boy who’d been caught stealing cookies. His cheeks looked flushed again. “Never mind. Forget I said anything. You’re still fully human.”

“Then why can I see your wings?” Cas demanded. “It’s not that I mind being able to see them. But why can I?”

As he waited for Dean’s reply, he found himself once again drawn to touch. Those golden feathers just begged for him to card his fingers through them. Dean had mojo’d away the blood, so his wings probably didn’t need to be groomed the way a bird’s would. Cas thought that was rather unfortunate. Perhaps it was just as well, though. Surely Dean wouldn’t want a lowly human touching them for any reason other than emergency first aid.

“I dunno.” Dean wouldn’t meet Cas’ eyes now. 

Because that didn’t look completely suspicious.

“Yes, Dean,” Cas said, “I believe you do.”

“It’s not… I mean it shouldn’t... “

Cas crossed his arms and settled in to wait Dean out. The angel continued to stammer, his wings fluttering behind him in agitation. If they were always this expressive, it was no wonder angels kept them hidden from human view most of the time.

“So, when you touched my wings,” Dean finally said, “not the blood coming out of them, but the actual wings… I think something happened. Well, more like when I used them to shield you.”

“Something like what?” Cas asked, feeling for all the world like he was encouraging a reluctant witness to tell their story.

“It’s not just that humans can’t usually see our wings,” Dean said. “They usually can’t touch them either. The only reason you could was because I willed them into this plane of existence as a shield to protect you.”

“Okay.” Cas had figured out that much, actually.

“Which, um, probably comes back to why Ishim was calling you my weakness and shit.”

“Okay,” Cas repeated. “And that means…”

Dean squared his shoulders and folded his wings in tightly.

“It means we’re connected.”

“Connected how?” Cas asked. “Some kind of a bond?”

“Something like that,” Dean said. “Normally that kind of thing only happens with other angels.”

“Like the way you’re connected to Sam?”

Cas had never quite understood how that worked. Technically, all of the angels were each other’s siblings. Dean and Sam, however, had a much stronger connection than most others, more like actual human brothers would be. Cas wasn’t sure how he felt about possibly having that same type of connection with Dean. “Brotherly” was not exactly how he felt toward the angel, not that he’d ever tell him that.

“Not quite.”

Well, that was reassuring. Sort of. Fortunately, Cas had plenty of experience waiting people out. It worked really well on reluctant witnesses, and it seemed to work fairly well on reluctant angels, too. Eventually Dean kept talking.

“Like you said, it’s kind of a bond. Just a really intense one, and not at all like the way Sam and I are connected. At all. Just… no.”

“So, we share some sort of ‘profound bond,’” Cas said. “And this may or may not have to do with me getting your blood on me while I was patching you up, but even if it does, it’s not turning me into an angel.”

“Exactly.” Dean breathed a sigh of relief.

“You do realize that explains exactly nothing, right?” Cas asked.

Dean’s wings seemed to fidget behind him, feathers fluffing out and settling back down as he scratched the back of his neck. 

Cas heard a flutter of wings that confused him for a second, as Dean’s wings were clearly not moving enough to cause such a sound. Then Sam materialized next to them.

“Hey, Dean,” Sam said, “you’re awake.”

“Good as new,” Dean said with a cocky grin. “So, you locked ‘em all up?”

“Yeah.” Sam blew out a sigh. “There could still be sympathetic factions around, but for now, I think we’re good.”

Cas felt a little of the tension flow out of his shoulders at that. Nobody trying to restart the apocalypse (again) any time soon, then. That just left… this. He stole another look at Dean’s wings. They were gorgeous, and once again, he found himself drawn to them. He wanted to bury his fingers in the feathers and experience them when they weren’t matted down with blood. He imagined they’d be soft.

“Cas, why are you staring at Dean’s wings?” Sam asked. “They’re concealed in the etheric plane now.”

“How can you… because of course you can,” Cas muttered. Dean did always say that his brother was the smartest angel in the garrison.

“Dean?” Sam asked.

“Leave it,” Dean said.

“But, Dean…”

“I said leave it, Sam!” Dean snapped.

“Have you told him…?” Sam started to ask.

“Yes,” Dean interrupted.

“Not really,” Cas retorted. 

Dean turned to glare at him and said, “I told you it had to do with pulling you out of hell.”

“That would explain things if I’d been able to see them all along,” Cas said.

“He’s got you there,” Sam said. He wore a grin that Cas couldn’t quite read.

“Sam, don’t you need to check up on… something?” Dean demanded.

“Fine, whatever.” And with a flutter of wings, Sam was gone.

“So what aren’t you telling me?” Cas asked. “It’s not even like today’s the second time you ever saved my life. You save it on a fairly regular basis. So, what’s different?”

Dean scrubbed a hand over his face and sighed. 

“Well?” Cas pressed. “Sam seemed to have some idea, and he seemed to think I should know.”

“Sam needs to mind his own freakin’ business,” Dean said. Behind him, his wings seemed to sag a little.

Cas was starting to panic. Why did Sam think this was something Cas needed to know, while Dean clearly didn’t want to tell him? How bad could it be? If he wasn’t turning into an angel, did it mean he was dying or something? Cas was pretty sure that, whatever Sam’s grin had meant, it wasn’t that. And Dean didn’t seem upset, exactly, like he had been other times that Cas had been in danger. If anything, he seemed… embarrassed? 

“It’s not the second time I’ve saved you,” Dean finally said. “It is the second time I’ve used my wings to do it.”

“Okaaaay,” Cas said. Obviously that wasn’t all of it. If the explanation were that simple, there would have been no reason to make such a big deal out of this. When Dean didn’t continue, Cas added, “And that means what? Next time I get my own set?”

That got a laugh out of Dean. It was a dry laugh, almost more of a bark, but it seemed to break some of the tension that had been weighing his wings down. They fluttered slightly and settled into what Cas guessed was a more comfortable resting position. At least, it looked that way to him, especially paired with the much more open expression on Dean’s face.

“No, Cas, you don’t get your own set,” Dean said. “Smartass.”

Cas grinned at him but didn’t say anything. 

“The thing is, um, angels don’t just use their wings to fly,” Dean said.

Cas thought about that for a moment, cocking his head to one side. He didn’t think Dean was talking about using them for balance when he walked, but he couldn’t think of another way wings could be used. Other than as a shield, he supposed.

“We can use them as a shield, like I did today and like when I pulled your ass out of hell,” Dean continued. “That’s pretty unusual, though.”

Cas just nodded.

“We also use them in our… inourbondingrituals.”

It took Cas a second to parse that out. “Bonding rituals? You mean like how you and Sam are closer to each other than your other angelic siblings?”

“What? No!” Dean’s face scrunched up as if he’d just bitten into a rotten lemon. “I already told you that. No way!”

“Then what?”

“More like a human wedding,” Dean mumbled.

Cas blinked at Dean while he tried to make those words fit into his brain. They didn’t quite compute.

“Do these rituals typically involve using your wings as a shield from hellfire or deadly assaults?” Cas asked.

“No.” Dean gave another laugh that sounded anything but happy. “No, there’s a lot more to them than that. But they do involve grace.”

“And whatever Jemariel—or whoever it was—threw at me, you used your wings to protect me from it,” Cas said, “and at least part of it was grace.”

Dean nodded.

That still didn’t explain why Dean was being so weird. 

“There’s also… All I could think, Cas, was that there was no way I was going to let him steal you away from me,” Dean said. He sounded like he was apologizing.

Finally, all the pieces slotted into place.

“So you were determined to hang onto me,” Cas said. “You shielded me with your wings, and the grace from the attack combined with your intent, and now we’re bonded. Basically married.”

Dean nodded silently.

Cas sat down on the bed. He was married to an angel. To Dean. And Dean obviously didn’t want them to be. Except, if it was partly his intent that had created this bond, then shouldn’t that mean he wanted this? Surely that was too much to hope for.

“There’s… Cas, I’m sorry,” Dean said, “but there’s no way to undo it.”

“Right.” Cas tried to swallow the lump in his throat. “So you’re stuck shackled to a lowly human.”

“What?” 

Cas snapped his head up to meet Dean’s eyes.

“Why would you say that?” Dean demanded. “When have I ever given you any reason to believe that’s what I think of you?”

“Oh, I don’t know, Dean,” Cas said as a memory flashed through his mind. “Maybe it was ‘I don’t serve man, and I certainly don’t serve you’?”

Dean looked like Cas had just punched him in the stomach. Well, assuming he could actually do that without breaking his hand.

“That was… you know that was one of the times Naomi…”

“I know.” Cas winced. “That was a low blow. I’m sorry.”

“You’re the one who shouldn’t have to be shackled to me,” Dean muttered, turning as if to leave the room.

“What?” Once again, Cas felt as though Dean was just throwing out words that didn’t fit together in a way that made sense. “What the hell would make you think that?”

“Oh, I dunno, Cas. Maybe it just doesn’t seem like you’d want to be stuck with a ‘dick with wings’!” Dean braced a hand on the door frame but didn’t go through. He also didn’t turn back to face Cas.

“What?” Cas jumped off the bed and shook his head to clear it. “You can’t possibly think I meant you!”

Dean finally turned back around and opened his mouth to say something. Whatever it was, Cas was pretty sure it wasn’t going to help with the verbal merry-go-round they’d been on for the last few minutes, so he stopped him. With his mouth.

Oh.

It took a second, but Dean quickly got with the program, wrapping both arms and wings around Cas and shifting their position slightly, deepening the kiss. Cas wondered, briefly, if he’d actually died back in that warehouse and this was his heaven. Except this wasn’t a memory, and he was pretty sure that even if heaven did ever let him in, they weren’t about to give him the one heaven where he could live his fantasies instead of his best memories. So this was real, and in case it never happened again, he was going to savor every second. He gave in to the temptation that had started the moment he’d seen Dean’s wings and buried his fingers in the soft, silky feathers, swallowing the delicious noises Dean made as he did.

A flap of wings announced that they were no longer alone.

“Uh, guys? Right, um, nevermind,” Sam said from somewhere in the hall behind Dean.

“See ya later, Sammy,” Dean muttered against Cas’ lips.

Another rustle of feathers, and they were alone again, forehead to forehead, Cas still firmly and comfortably cocooned in Dean’s wings.

“So you’re okay with this?” Dean asked.

“It’s a little out of order,” Cas said. “At least for humans. You might have noticed we typically date first.”

“Can we maybe count the last few years?” Dean asked. “Cut right to the honeymoon?”

Now that gave Cas all kinds of ideas. There was a lot they were going to have to figure out, starting with what it actually meant for them to be angel-married. But the honeymoon part? Cas was definitely okay with skipping right to that.

“I think that means we’ve had some pretty unconventional dates,” he replied, “but yeah. I think we can do that.”

“Awesome,” Dean murmured.

As he pulled Dean closer and claimed the angel’s lips again, Cas could only agree. This was awesome in every sense of the word. When they finally parted so Cas could catch his breath again, he realized something.

“If we’re going to have a honeymoon,” Cas said, “it should be someplace amazing. Trouble is, I’m not sure where we could go that would be amazing enough for an angel who’s seen pretty much everything.”

“You know what your trouble is, Cas?” Dean asked. “You think too much. We don’t need to go anywhere. In fact, I think we should stay. Right. Here.”

Cas swallowed. Yeah, this was going to be amazing.


End file.
